Check Your Ego at the Door: Normalizing Feedback

Feedback is another useful and highly effective tool that leaders have in their toolbox... It is also one that is uncomfortable and easily avoided.

If you want honest input, better decisions, and a team that feels invested in the work, feedback cannot be something that only happens during formal reviews or when something goes wrong.

Normalizing feedback starts with one uncomfortable truth: you cannot operate from ego and expect people to be honest with you.

Feedback Matters Even More the Higher You Climb

The higher you move up in an organization, the more generalist your role becomes, and you become further from the day-to-day. You become further from the customer experience and further from the systems and processes that either work smoothly or create friction. That distance is not a flaw - it is just a reality of leadership.

However, that distance and more general perspective also means that you need feedback to stay effective.

Your team members are closest to the work. They see what is breaking down, what feels inefficient, and what could be improved long before it shows up in a report or performance metric. Honest feedback helps you make better decisions using the knowledge and expertise already in the room.

Without honest feedback, leaders risk making well-intentioned decisions that miss the mark.

Normalizing Feedback Requires Checking Your Ego

Feedback is not just in relation to systems, processes, or projects. Sometimes it is about you.

That is where ego shows up.

Hearing feedback about your leadership can sting. It can feel personal. Your instinct might be to explain, defend, or dismiss. I have been there - trust me! I once received some critical and honest feedback from a former employee who was also a close friend. My initial reaction was defensiveness. My ego kicked in fast.

Instead of responding immediately, I paused. I sat with it. It was uncomfortable. It required me to acknowledge something about myself that I did not love seeing reflected back.

But my friend was right. Recognizing and acknowledging it allowed me to repair, grow, and show up better.

Growth requires discomfort. You cannot evolve as a leader if you are unwilling to look honestly at yourself.

Feedback Is About Support, Not Self Protection

When leaders normalize feedback, they send a clear message. This is not about blame, but rather about improvement.

Checking your ego at the door does not mean abandoning confidence or authority. It means remembering that leadership is not about optics or protecting your image. It is about supporting your team and creating conditions where people can do their best work.

When people feel heard, they are more engaged. When they feel safe sharing ideas or concerns, they invest more. When leaders respond with curiosity instead of defensiveness, trust deepens.

In turn, teams perform better, communities and customers are better served, and leaders stay aware instead of isolated.

Practical Ways to Invite and Normalize Feedback

If you want feedback, you have to actively invite it.

Here are some practical ways to do that:

• Use 360 evaluations to gather structured input

• Offer anonymous surveys or suggestion boxes

• Ask open ended questions in one-on-ones

• Invite feedback on ideas before decisions are finalized

• Ask what could be improved after projects or initiatives
  

Just as important as asking, is how you respond. Thank people for their honesty. Even when you don't agree. Even when it is uncomfortable... especially when it is uncomfortable.

That response determines whether feedback keeps flowing or stops altogether.

Feedback Goes Both Ways

Normalizing feedback applies in two directions.

It means creating space for your team to give you feedback as a leader, and it means creating an environment where feedback about ideas, processes, and work is part of everyday conversation.

When feedback is normalized, it stops feeling personal and it becomes a tool for improvement.

This is exactly how high performing teams operate!